The smiles may have been there when they arrived but they are long gone now.
As October arrives, a month firmly pencilled in the diary by many a Red due to the RBS loan deadline, Mssrs Hicks & Gillett find themselves now confronted with Hollywood demanding their exit from Liverpool Football Club, in the latest of a line of a direction action against the infamous owners by Liverpool fans.
The failings of the American duo are heavily documented and have steadily risen to a global scale during their tenure, with many a lie cast and many a false dawn seen along the way. A new owner has failed to materialise at the club despite the introduction of a so called rescue team in the form of Martin Broughton and Barcap to entice them, many believing the largely inflated price held over the club to be the major stumbling block in negotiations.
The club was kidnapped from those with their heart strings firmly attached to it, stolen under the guise of LBO purchase that lay beneath a cape of false words, a business grade ransom now placed on its head for its safe return.
You would think these actions were the works of a terrorist, a team of individuals with greatly less than sincere intentions, people that hide away in the shadows or that operate in the underworld. Opportunists they are, but proud to walk amongst those they wronged they are also, morals lost along the way, honour and integrity words with little meaning, all traded for the dollar sign.
While our owners have always believed that the green of the dollar is the colour to worship, they are quickly learning that the Red of the club and its fanbase is indeed a far bigger adversary than they had estimated. The Liverpool Supporters Union – the Spirit of Shankly have been at the heart of many a structured and organised opposition to the American owners and have continued to carefully build on their goals of removing them from the club. With such successful campaigns as “Debt Lies Cowboys” and “Not Welcome Anywhere“, there has very much been a physical viewing element to the planning of raising awareness to the American’s wrong doings, which has returned a steadily growing membership to pass on that message.
Alongside the Union’s arranged activities, Liverpool fans have turned to the power of Twitter and Facebook to get their message of dissatisfaction across and create a more unified front, a good example is the work of Erin McCloskey & Paul Wilson in recent weeks (see article), when confronted with the opportunity of Tom Hicks waiting outside Deutsche bank. Now is the turn of You Tube, as Hollywood director and passionate Liverpool fan Mike Jefferies, turns to his fellow stars and the fans of Liverpool FC to voice their opinion in a video viral targeted for release on Tuesday October 5th.
Mike Jefferies and business partner Dan Hubbard, with a string of box office hits between them, are both passionate Reds and are to use their influential contacts and expertise to create the video which will be uploaded on to You Tube once edited, with a big push to reach as many viewers as possible using the propulsion of the fan base and social media. A-List actors such as Liverpool fans Samuel L Jackson and Mike Myers are already believed to have shown interest in working on the project.
Mike, via his blog Poor Scouser Tommy and Twitter feed @mikejefferiesL4 recently voiced his intentions and recommendations to target the American media more for awareness of what was happening to Liverpool Football Club and the terrible path that it had been forced down under the reign of Hicks & Gillett, something that The New York Times was only to happy to pick up on in their recent column, covering the open letter to Tom Hicks that Mike had penned.
On the idea for the video, Mike Jefferies recently commented:
“You won’t believe who’s involved. I’ve been stunned by terrific reaction of so many celebrity Reds, and many, many fans want to be involved in the film too,” he said.
“It is important to get the message across that the fans want Hicks and Gillett out. There are millions of supporters who can not accept their club being touted as a product like a soft drink.
“The viral is already building massive momentum and there is a real feeling now amongst the fanbase. But they don’t care, they don’t care about our club – except its valuation.
“They don’t care about the players or the fans. Or our history, or our heritage, and they don’t care about our future.
“By trying to refinance instead of showing some class and cutting a reasonable deal with someone and cutting his losses, Hicks is saying ‘f**k you’ to the fans.
“So what should we say in reply? ENOUGH! The only way we can get him to change his arrogant mindset is to give him a bloody nose and embarrass him in front of his family, friends, business associates, investors etc.
“Therefore, I flew up from Cape Town last night to come to Liverpool to make a short film here this weekend in which Liverpool fans and stakeholders will tell Tom Hicks – and the world – what they think of him. We are going to shame him and hit him where it hurts.”
“Our aim is to work night and day so that we can have the film uploaded onto YouTube by Tuesday, and we would then like fans to email the URL to their entire address books,” he added.
“Imagine if we could get a MILLION hits. If we can achieve that, then we can rest assured that everyone who counts will know that Tom Hicks is utterly despised. And more importantly, Tom Hicks will know.”
They video will recorded this coming weekend, a weekend that also see’s a second week of direct action by fans in the form of protests and a sit in after the game as Liverpool take on Blackpool at home in the Premier League.
The Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool city centre plays host to the recording and from 10am-6pm on Saturday, and 9am-noon on Sunday, fans are encouraged to come along and play their own part, in recording a message that very shortly Tom Hicks & George Gillett are going to hear very loud and clear.
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I want Sam Jackson to say “I have had it with these motherf___ing Yanks at this mothef____ing club!”
GILLETT AND HICKS OUT